Scotland
We were not ready for our holiday at all so had to leave at lunchtime on Saturday after getting everything packed. We'd both been working all week, with the exception of Friday for me, which I spent travelling to Birmingham to get the new iPhone on the release date. Sad I know.
We eventually set off at about 2.30pm after doing our packing and a quick trip to Asda. The journey was fine, no delays, and we made good progress and stopped overnight near a village called Dunkeld which is a bit north of Perth. We came across our overnight stop after rejecting the one we were aiming for (it was too sloping), and following our noses down a forest track to a small car park in the middle of some woods. It was a bit creepy to start with as we'd arrived after dark but we soon got used to it and it proved to be an excellent overnight spot.
We were up before 8 this morning (in case anyone else turned up at the car park), had breakfast and got on our way. It was only an hour and a bit to Aviemore, where we stopped to buy the only thing we've realised we've forgotten so far - my long johns. I managed to find a cheap and nasty pair reduced to £5 which should be ok considering I only want them to wear in the evening if we do an overnight camp or bivvy. We also bought a pair of shorts each that are matching and were in the sale. If we wear them together this trip then we will try to wear matching t shirts and be sure to get photos.
We headed over to Loch an Eilein, a few miles outside Aviemore. We've been there before and it's a lovely place to spend a day. Today was a nice day, dry, not too cold, and sunny-ish with some clouds. We started off with a 5km run round the Loch, which is pretty flat and a nice place for a run. Then we had lunch and a short break to digest, which I filled with a power nap.
At about 3.30pm we got our wetsuits on and went for a swim in the Loch. We've been out on the Loch before in the canoe, when we visited the ruined castle on the island. As we were zipping out wetsuits up, a man started chatting to us and telling us the story behind the castle on the island. Apparently it was built in the 12th century by some bloke called Wolverine (or something like that) who was the son of Robert the Bruce (I think) and had form for raping and pillaging an entire abbey with his gang. We weren't quite sure whether to believe the man or not.
He then went on to say that he swam out as far as the island once. I commented smugly that we were planning to swim to the end of the Loch and back (the island is about a third of the way along), and after that he stopped his story telling and watched us slipping on the rocks to get in the water instead.
The water wasn't too cold and we eventually made it to the end of the Loch, by what must have been a not particularly direct route as it ended up being about 1.5km (we were expecting about 1.2). The way back was tough going to start with as it felt like we were swimming against a current, but once we'd got about half way along things seemed to improve and we were soon staggering out of the water in front of some waiting photographers. Look out for us on the cover of Vogue next month.
We both felt a bit dizzy when we emerged, which is quite common with open water swimming, although I can't remember why. I was quite cold and it took over an hour for me to regain the feeling in my toes. We were pleased to have done our longest open water swim ever, and only have to add on about another kilometre to reach full Ironman swim distance!
We've stopped at one of our favourite spots next to Loch Morlich for the night. After chicken and noodles and some red wine we're both feeling like we've reached normal body temperature.
We're hoping for a good night's sleep tonight to set us up for an overnighter on the hills on Monday and Tuesday to tick off a few more Munros.
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